LSVW for sale - Crown Assets

[rob love]

Are you serious Robert....the spare tire carrier?

Ah yes, the spare tire carrier. Innovative it was.......it was spring loaded to balance out the weight of the tire. Only problem was that if you changed the tire, and did not install the old one on the carrier (for instance you were going to roll it over to maintenance to get it fixed) the carrier would shoot up like a Roman Ballista. Of course, the release lever was towards the bottom of the whole contraption, so your face would be right in the trajectory path. One guy lost an eye during the flood fighting of 97 here in Manitoba...not sure if there were others.

There was of course a yellow bilingual decal warning of the danger of the device located nearby, but these would normally be subdued with camstick for field use. Besides, you just finished changin a tire.....you were just finishing a workout, not reading the sides of trucks.

Within a year or two of that event, there was a modification kit to install a damper shock which would slow the travel of the arm.

The newest version of the engine heater seems to be a lot more effective. The early heaters had a plastic pulley and small belt that were especially prone to failure.

It was nice that they went to a hot hot water type heater for the back of the boxes. They are much more reliable and simple than the fuel fired heaters located in the back of the 5/4 tons. So I'll give the truck that much.

The other positive was the diff lock. That helped the cross country performance and would compensate for the lack of power.